DEMESNE

Demesne

In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The system of manorial land tenure, broadly termed feudalism, was conceived in Western Europe, initially in France but exported to areas affected by Norman expansion during the Middle Ages, for example the Kingdoms of England, Sicily, Jerusalem, and Scotland.

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demesne

Noun

  1. A lord’s chief manor place, with that part of the lands belonging thereto which has not been granted out in tenancy; a house, and the land adjoining, kept for the proprietor’s own use.
  2. A region or area; a domain.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: demesne
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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